Are You Caving In To Satan’s Roar?

I have a strong sense there’s fear among Christians because of the all-out attack against Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible. The unbelieving world is riddled with their fears but instead of God’s people standing against ours under the anointing and power of the Lord, many appear to be succumbing to it. There can be only one reason; they are not as close to God as they need to be. The one-hourly Sunday church service, the mid-week Bible study, prayer on-the-run after a quick Bible read or ‘Every Day with Jesus’ devotional may have been enough to sustain in days past, but not for days future. Satan’s roar against us is getting louder by the hour; those not close to God will cave in to that roar.

Memorizing favorite Scripture verses and Christian faith quotes will not be enough to silence his roar either. For every Scripture and quote in our head, Satan has a million of them and he’ll knock you down with any one them long before you knock him down. It’s time to take the Lord Jesus Christ seriously. The word of God must no longer be allowed to rattle around in our head along with all the other stuff that’s there … Jesus is not going to compete with anyone or anything – He never has! Time to put away all the niceties people want to hear; time to stand up and tell them what they need to hear. There’s only one way for that to happen and that is to become a disciple of Jesus, not just a believer of Jesus. It is the disciple who overcomes fear not the believer.    

Many Christians would say there is no difference between  disciples and believers, so let’s look at it. Disciples of Jesus are disciplined people – learners or pupils. They are in the school of Christ twenty-four hours a day, not simply in the church of Christ for one or two hours on Sunday and Wednesday night. It is disciples who seek for the word of Christ to dwell in them richly Colossians 3:16 and they’ll pay the price to make sure it does. They’ll meet the conditions to John 8:31, If you abide in My word….. Abide means: ‘stay’ ‘continue’ ‘dwell’ ‘endure’ ‘remain’ ‘stand’. Even when all hell breaks loose, that’s what disciples do; they don’t run away from Satan’s roars – or from his whispers! Believers in the church of Christ will run away.

Disciples don’t come and go from the school of Christ whenever they feel like it. They know there’s no such thing as “a better offer” so they’ll stay in class. Believers in the church of Christ don’t; if they believe they’ve got a better offer they’ll take off. In a practical sense that means they’ll sit home and watch TV, or go out to dinner, the theater etc on the one night the church holds it’s prayer meeting. They’ll turn up again on Sunday morning, but essentially they call the shots, not Jesus. It means they’ll read the Bible from time to time but they won’t dig into the Bible to find out what God says to them on a personal basis. So when believers see disciples saying or doing something foreign to their understanding they’ll judge them rather than bless them.

Disciples in the school of Christ make sure they’ve got a few reliable, time-tested study resources on hand too. At the very least a Bible concordance and Bible dictionary are in possession to help them discover God’s meaning of His words, not man’s meaning. In other words, the works of Mr Young and Mr Vine for example, should take precedence over the works of Mr Webster and ‘Mr Oxford’ for example, if there’s going to be any discrepancies over meanings. If there are no discrepancies, all is ok, but very often there are. Satan knows the works of Young and Vine but he won’t use them, he’ll abuse them, just as he abuses the Authorized Version of the Bible by substituting it for the all those paraphrased versions on the market.

Disciples in the school of Christ are by no means better than believers in the church of Christ, but they are different. They hunger and thirst after righteousness Matthew 5:6. That is, they want to know God’s mind on every issue facing them in this life. And when God reveals His mind, they embrace it and adopt it as their own 1 Corinthians 2:16. See post: My Possession of the Mind of Christ. They rely on the Holy Spirit to teach and interpret all Scripture for them, giving Him always, the freedom to say what He means and mean what He says. Believers in the church of Christ don’t like the literal approach unless it fits with their logic and reason. That’s why they’re easily tossed to and fro and blown about by deceivers standing in pulpits Ephesians 4:14.

Herein lies the main reason for the fear among Christians presently. They are embracing that which others tell them without searching the Scriptures for themselves to see if it is so. Even if the man in the pulpit or home group is holy and righteous, he is still a man, not God. Therefore, like every other Christian he is capable of Scriptural bias leading to Scriptural over-emphasis which leads to Scriptural error. The problem today in churches though is, many pastors are not called by God, they’re called by the church; called to fulfill a particular job description just like people do it in the corporate world. The church is not discerning the difference these days, so instead of God’s men standing in pulpits we have career men – ambitious men!

Career men who hang around for a few years can build churches, but they can’t build schools of Christ. Never having attended one, they think they’re one and the same when disciples of Christ talk with them about it. Most career men don’t hang around though; each position they attain is used as a stepping stone to the next. Their eyes and ears are continually peeled awaiting the next attractive offer and when it comes they pounce! So, one career man moves on, only to be replaced by another! Disciples in the school of Christ see these men for what they are; believers in the church of Christ see them for what they’re not! The believers get emotionally excited with his Christian-speak, especially as he blends it with all the buzz words of Corporate-speak. 

Everybody within gets fired up by the “vision” he brings, they buy into it, get active in it and after a couple of years of not much happening, the career man one Sunday morning makes the announcement that, “God has called him on to such and such.” It’s not true; God hasn’t called him to any place … never has, except into the school of Christ! So they come and they go and they go and they come and the church is none the wiser and none the better! Should you run into one their members, they’ll tell you how disappointing the whole thing turned out to be, “but nevertheless, God is in control.” Six months later you meet the same person again and they’re back on a high because, “God has sent us a wonderful man this time.”

And on it goes year in year out all over the Western World. One of the odd things about these career men in the church is that the majority of them wouldn’t make it in the corporate world. If it’s true that some people run into churches to hide, it’s also true that some pastors do it too. But, career men they are, career men they’ll always be. Anyone of them can go anywhere they like and they’ll always get a pulpit to stand in and stay there until they find a better offer. There’s no spiritual substance to career men in charge of churches. They’re shallow people; they have no heart for Jesus and no heart for His people … “all froth and bubble” as the saying goes. Yet believers in the church of Christ love them and they’ll defend them.

Why will believers do that? Because he’s a people-pleaser. He tells them all the “right” things they want to hear and they lap it up like little dogs drinking from a saucer. He knows how to pull Scriptures together to make his sermon a mini “Purpose Driven” message. He’s skilled at creating “me” messages, but unskilled at creating Christ messages. He has no Holy Spirit anointing upon himself or his messages, that’s why he smiles a lot, shouts a lot, moves around a lot, amen’s a lot and halleujah’s a lot. As for his people, because they’ve not experienced much of the true work of Holy Spirit in the church they think He only comes when His man works up a spiritual sweat! That’s what the previous career men did, that’s what they expect.

Am I saying a man of God shouldn’t smile, shout, move, say amen, say hallelujah? No.  I’m saying the man of God is a God-pleaser, not a people-pleaser; he preaches what the Holy Spirit lays on his heart whether the people like it or not. He makes it his business to ensure a school of Christ is established in his church and he does what he can to encourage believers in Christ to enroll and attend. He doesn’t manipulate, intimidate or cajole, he simply prays, then preaches and teaches. And because it’s very clear to all that he’s a man hungering and thirsting after righteousness, some of that hunger and thirst rubs off. The man of God doesn’t see himself as a one man show either and as such, he brings other men of God in to preach and teach as well.

In addition, the man of God discerns the voice of God and he responds when God shows him which disciples in the school of Christ are ready to take up their Spirit-anointed ministry. Instead of being threatened by a disciple’s ministry, as are career men in the church, the man of God encourages him or her to take a step and put it into practice. He stands by ready to give advice on ways to adjust and fine tune that ministry, but essentially he gives them the freedom to make their mistakes just like the Holy Spirit gives them freedom. Like any other kind of work, the man of God knows that practice makes progress, before it makes “perfect”. Too, unlike career men, he has clear insight regarding the difference between perfection and perfectionism!

Are you caving in to Satan’s roar? Even though disciples in the school of Christ experience fear, they are not trapped in it like believers in the church of Christ. In other words, fear comes upon them, but it is not in them! As disciples dig into the written word God, more and more do they experience it as the Living Word of God – His name is Jesus. Not only does Jesus set us free from fear, but He has a personal word for any and every situation Christians will face in this life. Disciples in the school of Christ find great comfort in this reality; a comfort they desire every believer in the church of Christ would experience. Disciple or believer, career man or man of God … which do you choose? “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind” 2 Timothy 1:7. “Fear not; I am the First and the Last” Revelation 1:17.